As an episode of “The Americans,” I think “The Colonel” works very, very well. It’s tense, it’s emotional and it moves a bunch of plots (particularly Nina’s conversion and the KGB’s interesting in SDI) along significantly. I wasn’t wild about the car chase(*) after Philip rescued Elizabeth, but everything else story-wise was strong.

(*) It’s very hard to do anything interesting with a car chase in 2013, let alone on the budget and schedule of a basic cable drama. I’m not expecting anything on the level of, say, “To Live and Die in L.A.” (still probably the finest example of a car chase shown from the point of view of the pursued, rather than the pursuers), but if there’s not a certain intensity level, my inclination is usually to wonder why the producers bothered, rather than coming up with something else to do. At least this one wasn’t all that long.

My only question is about how well “The Colonel” works as a season finale.

As the last episode we’re going to get until 2014 – and what could have been the last episode, period, if the ratings had been different – I feel the finale of a serialized drama like this has a different kind of burden on it than a regular episode does. It doesn’t have to resolve everything (and I appreciated how many story avenues it left open for next year), nor does it have to end on some kind of stunning cliffhanger that the new season would then struggle to undo (and if Paige had found the wig/guns/money cache in the laundry room, it would speak very poorly of her parents’ skills). But it has to feel like a culmination of what we watched in the season leading up to it, and I came to the end of “The Americans” feeling the way Philip must have when the colonel started to tell him that SDI is completely bogus(**), wondering what it was I had devoted all this time into.

(**) Check the Weisberg/Fields interview for insight into how the show can move forward on this without rewriting history about the ’80s arms race.

Clearly, the scene where Elizabeth asks Philip to come home was designed as that culminating moment. The show is fundamentally about a marriage; the Cold War isn’t exactly window dressing to that, but the spycraft is likely always going to be secondary on the show’s agenda to how these two feel about each other. My problem is that, even though Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys were so good in that scene, the show went back and forth and back and forth throughout the season on which half of the couple wanted the marriage to be real, so that the impact of a seemingly significant moment like this was blunted. Yes, it’s touching when Elizabeth speaks in their mother tongue to try to end their recent struggles, but the show did too many previous reversals on the state of the marriage for this scene to land the way it was intended.

Without that, “The Colonel” still has much to offer, particularly the tense early scenes where we know more than Philip and Elizabeth do about which assignment is safe and which one’s the trap, and as we watch Elizabeth steel herself for the possibility that she might never see her children or her “husband” again, just like her mother never saw her again after she took the Directorate S assignment. And even Paige’s sense of unease about the laundry room is the sort of thing the show can play with (particularly as she gets older and more rebellious) without going to the point of no return just yet.

But after the show had been so great for so much of this season, I was expecting more from the finale – something that made the whole of the season feel greater than the sum of its parts – when instead what I got was a strong episode of “The Americans” that was hampered a bit at the end by storytelling decisions made in earlier episodes.

Not a bad way to go into the hiatus, by any means, but the show set a very high bar over the last three months, and ideally the finale goes well above that.

Some other thoughts:

* We’re a few weeks away from knowing whether CBS picked up the sitcom that Margo Martindale’s in, and the finale wisely hedges its bets, Claudia-wise. If the sitcom’s a go, then Grannie returns to the USSR as per Philip and Elizabeth’s request. If it’s not picked up – or if CBS winds up being unusually generous in allowing Martindale to moonlight on another channel’s show – then Claudia’s actions in warning Philip about the trap (even if it was the wrong trap) may be enough for them to change their minds about her.

* And if this is the last we see of Grannie, then Martindale went out with a bang, between the scene where she gets revenge for Zhukov on Richard Patterson and the scene with Arkady where we hear things entirely from her perspective and realize how protective she is of her charges, even after they stabbed her in the back by requesting her reassignment. If Martindale wants another Emmy for a role on an FX drama, this is clearly her episode to submit.

* I talked to Weisberg and Fields about my pleasant surprise at both Martha and Nina surviving the season, and it’s interesting to see their completely divergent mindsets at this point. Martha is now preparing to redecorate her apartment for Clark’s sake, and clearly plans on him being around much more than Philip does. Nina, meanwhile, has already started expertly playing Stan. Whether she has the ability to turn him like Arkady wants is unclear, but it won’t be from lack of skill on her part.

* Speaking of Stan, it’s a measure of how relatively isolated Philip and Elizabeth’s cover identities are that Philip has to call Stan to watch the kids while Elizabeth is convalescing from a gunshot wound that very well may have come from Stan’s weapon.

* Our last early ’80s tune of the season is Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers,” which you knew the show was going to use at some point, right?

* One other note from the interview worth mentioning here: Fields and Weisberg admit that the New York weather during production played hell on their attempt to follow a consistent timeline in the show’s universe. HEre, for instance, we have the Stanley Cup finals taking place in the same period when Sanford Prince is arrested in a snowstorm.

What did everybody else think? Did “The Colonel” stick the landing for you? And now that it’s done, where would you place this year among the debut seasons of the recent great drama series?

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I found it interesting that Phillip likes/admires Stan enough to slam the escape car in reverse rather than just floor it forward and possibly run over/kill him. Clearly, going backwards was the more risky maneuver there but a risk worth taking rather than harm his neighbor/friend.

By: SlackerInc

05.02.2013 @ 3:26 AM

I suppose that could be part of it but I thought they were going to run into a hail of gunfire if they continued forward.

By: hmm2

05.02.2013 @ 6:50 AM

Going forward could damage the engine. Going in reverse minimized the damage to the car’s mechanisms.

By: hmm2

05.02.2013 @ 7:52 AM

What I meant was if they had to crash cars, it would have been safer to crash using the rear rather than the front of the car.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:40 AM

Yeah, I agree. Going forward meant a half dozen people shooting directly at them before, during, and after their crash, plus taking bullets and major damage to the engine and radiator. Going backward meant taking less direct fire and less direct damage to the engine. Wise move on Phillip’s part, but I still can believe the FBI didn’t have a better contingency in place for an escape like that.

By: randomwaves

05.04.2013 @ 2:27 PM

Reply to comment…

By: randomwaves

05.04.2013 @ 2:29 PM

Grr tricksy enter key… AS I was going to say, I think it was also a calculated decision: if he took a run at Stan and Stan somehow survived, he probably would have recognized him.

By: Steve

05.02.2013 @ 3:17 AM

The finale didn’t have a singular jaw dropping event like many shows might go down the route of, but there were so many twists during the season, I feel only something extremely dramatic would give the true season finale feel, but that would also have completely turned the show on it’s head. This is an absolutely excellent drama, and the pace of it, including the finale worked for me. Love so much about this show.

By: svetlana

05.02.2013 @ 3:48 AM

It reminded me a little of how the Wire used to end their seasons, without big cliffhangers and a montage set to music checking in on everyone. I think its a nice change of pace.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:42 AM

Really? Grannie’s revenge scene was pretty impressive, and the closing scene in the laundry room had me on the edge of my seat. What were you expecting? I thought this was excellent TV.

By: Kay

05.22.2013 @ 5:54 AM

I agree, it was a great finale to a wonderful first series. I think I was expecting something more like the Homeland first season finale, but now prefer this episode to anything overly dramatic they could have done. I think it will be easy to go into next season following on rather than having a whole lot of new characters. Also reminded me of the Wire and Sopranos season finales.

Props for the love for The Good Wife, which I’d personally put on top.

Really like your rankings overall.

By: John

05.02.2013 @ 9:59 AM

Hmm…of the shows mentioned, I’d probably go like so (haven’t seen Enlightened, so I have to leave it out, unfortunately):
Game of Thrones > The Americans > Homeland > Breaking Bad (probably No. 1. if not for the writers’ strike that shortened it to seven episodes) > Sherlock > Justified > The Good Wife > House of Cards > Mad Men (it’s a great show, but I didn’t care for the first season that much) Sons of Anarchy. Oh, and you didn’t mention Downton Abbey (perhaps you haven’t seen it, or perhaps you just forgot), which I’m seriously tempted to put in the No. 1 position (the first season is seven episodes of near-perfect television).

By: John

05.02.2013 @ 12:56 PM

Oh, I left Boardwalk Empire out somehow. I’d put that one between Justified and The Good Wife.

By: De Niro

05.02.2013 @ 5:00 PM

Breaking Bad’s first season was great, it just suffered from only having 7 episodes. Of course, it’s the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th seasons that elevate it to best show of all time, but, other than the number of episodes the season wound up having, the season is amazing.

By: John

05.02.2013 @ 6:59 PM

Completely agree, De Niro. I’m of the opinion that Breaking Bad has never made a bad episode. Not even once. Every episode has ranged from good to brilliant. And it has never had a major structural flaw. Only show I can say both of those things about. As long as the final season finishes strong, it’s the best show ever.

I love every episode of the first season. It’s just that it’s not really a full season and ends in an unnatural spot. It’s not the show’s fault (due to the writers strike), and if I include the first two episodes of the second season (where the arc of the first season naturally ends), I have no problem ranking it No. 1.

By: Louis Vuiton

05.04.2013 @ 6:01 PM

I just watched one episode, that I saw more than once from last years BB. Madrigal. Nothing will ever, ever touch BB as the most brilliant. I loved the Americans, but Vince Gilligan, hands down

By: Athabasca

05.02.2013 @ 3:20 AM

I love this series. Unlike Alan, I didn’t find Elizabeth’s wish for Philip to come home as implausible as all that. Philip wrote ‘I love you’ on his note to her in the travel agency, so Elizabeth might have been softening a little in her position toward their ‘marriage’. And being shot has a way of focussing one’s attentions on priorities. The car chase was good for showing a lot of 80’s style vehicles– still a better car chase than the one in Argo. I wish the season finale had been a two-parter in a way, so that we could have seen what the impact of the FBI’s failure would have been on Stan and Gaad, and just how triumphal Nina and Arkady were. Maybe next season.

By: Oaktown Girl

05.02.2013 @ 7:39 AM

@Athabasca – I think you’re misreading what Alan said regarding the final scene with Elizabeth. He was not saying it was implausible, not at all. What he said – and here I agree – was that the scene did not have nearly the emotional impact it could have had.

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:06 AM

I don’t know. It had a lot of emotional impact for me. I think the russian did the trick (I don’t think the impact would have been the same in english) expecially after the scene of her listening to the tape from her mother. Keri Russell sold that scene with the walkman soooo well.

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:08 AM

Maybe I read into it but I felt that by using the russian it was the “real” soviet her accepting him as her “real” husband… perhaps for the first time. That is what got to me.

By: Juilus

05.02.2013 @ 3:25 AM

A tense finale? People actually thought the either Elizabeth or Philip would be captured or killed? On a show with a second season? Have you forgotten they’re super spies? Infiltrated any level of government – sneak in and out of the FBI (parking lot but still) kill agents, CIA.

The way they’ve been built up – they have to win the cold war. They’re the more accomplished ones.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:45 AM

A couple years ago I would agree with you, but modern TV plotting has shown that TV series with these shorter seasons can be incredibly fluid and unpredictable. You really shouldn’t expect these shows to follow all the old rules, because the old rules mean nothing when it comes to great TV. The Americans is great TV.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 2:43 PM

@Julius & Joel:

I didn’t expect them to be captured or anything in the least. They are the leads and while it is true that showrunners seem to be more willing to kill off main characters unexpectedly than before “The Walking Dead” is a obvious case in point. In fact people sometimes complain about that.

However, I don’t think Rick Grimes is going to die anytime soon; Neither is Nucky Thompson of “Boardwalk Empire” even if it shocked some people that the popular Jimmy Darmady (sp?) was killed off. Dexter on “Dexter” was always going to evade capture from the beginning so that shouldn’t have been a surprise. Now that it is the last season then yes he could live or die. Lt. LaGuerta of course was a huge major charchter that died last season and some were surprised by that, as was the killing of Dexter’s wife a few seasons ago.

Walter White and Jesse were always going to survive. Now that it is in its last season, their motality are in jeapody.

I don’t think Jax of “Sons of Anarchy” is going away either.

On “Persons of Interest” Resse and Finch are pretty safe. I think Carter is as well. Fusco…?

The same with Elizabeth and Philip Jennings. Stan maybe killed as could Martha, Nina, Arkady, Claudia; Agent Gadd are all vulnerable to being killed off at one level or another. Some probably are more likely to survive if fan favorite status means anything to the show runners Ben on “Lost” was supposed to die wasn’t he? But he bacame the breakout character of that show and so survived.

So Nina, Claudia and Stan probably have a higher likelihood of surviving than they did at the start of the series (of course Martindale’s “Claudia” could be killed off if the pilot for her new show is successful but even then she maybe merely reassigned), but it could be also to get a jolt out of us they could kill any of them within two or three episodes or anytime during the next season.

But the two characters the show is built around, Elizbeth and Philip, are nigh certain for them to survive untill the last season. It is possible that one of them could die to evoke a powerful sense of lost and trauma on the survivor and the kids but one of them will survive until the last episode.

That is the nature of the beast. The enjoyment of dramatic tension has to come from in how they escape not if the two central characters are going to be killed. So they evading the FBI in the car chase is a forgone conclusion. Elizabeth surviving her gunshot wound is a forgone conclusion. It is how they will deal with it that the drama comes in.

Now that said I wouldn’t call them “Super Spies”. Yes they are very good at what they do and probably are one of the best teams the KGB has in the United States, but they are not in the “James Bond” category. They make plenty mistakes and have had their failures even if on missions they are a well oiled machine. So far the only highly athletic thing either of them has done is not repel off a 100 story building, but Elizabeth slithering from one car on lifts to another car on lifts. :-)

They are quite grounded in reality (even if in reality as far as I know the KGB and FBI never went to “war” on US soil) Very talented? Yes. Super Spies? No.

In an unique exception to the answer of whether the main character will live beyond the series or die in the finale is that we still don’t know if Tony Soprano is alive or dead. :-)

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 3:23 PM

Oh I will added that it is possible that the kids are vulnerable as well.

Maybe that was the point of “Trust” (the episode that had the Jennings abducted by the KGB) with them hitchhiking with that creep (I still say he ws just a creep and not a KGB Oficcer who doesn’t know the first thing about handling American Children). Something can happen to them.

And to expand on that point of someone complaining that it seemed to lead to nothing. It is planting a seed. Another trend I am seeing and I think it is a good one is that they are not resovling some minor plot lines immediately, but waiting down the line, so maybe we will get something out of the hitchhiking plotline next season, just like I guess we will have to wait awhile to find out what Kalinda did to get her husband out of town on “The Good Wife.” (it did take two seasons to find out who Kalinda was running from).

I think it is a forgone conclusion that Paige and Henry’s secret will come out eventually. It will just take some time and in a related plotline, like maybe the finale is the start of the kids sneaking out of the house with the parents gone since Paige at least is bucking parental orders. It was gainst the rules to hitchhike, itw asw against the rules to enter their parent’s bedroom at night.

How devestating it would be if one or both of the kids are killed?

By: SlackerInc

05.02.2013 @ 3:25 AM

I tended to agree with you, Alan, about a couple of the earlier episodes in the season that were subpar. But I really disagree about this one. I guess it’s not a 180 degree disagreement, because you did say the episode worked “very, very well” on the level of an individual episode; but I thought it was a fantastic finale as well and not structured in a way we have seen in previous episodes.

For me this was easily the best episode since the pilot and everything about it, big and small, worked. I even liked the car chase: exciting enough without being overbaked and unrealistic. I suppose the “was she shot? oh, later we learn that yes she was” trope has been done to death, but this was an excellent exemplar of it, as I initially wondered if she might have been hit, then put it out of my mind until they stopped.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:47 AM

Agreed. Solid finale. Maybe not as bombastic as a finale of Homeland, but ultimately more satisfying for me.

By: Jeff G

05.02.2013 @ 3:27 AM

I thought it was great for a finale. Like you said, it’s such a fine line with a serialized drama in an episode like this. You want fireworks, but you also need to leave the show in a way that it can continue on. I’m glad that they didn’t go the massive cliffhanger route, as it’s tough to come up with something reasonable that isn’t backed out of during the next season premiere.

The intensity throughout the whole episode was great. I thought they gave Grannie fantastic stuff to work with and I hope she comes back. It setup the characters for the next season perfectly and I’m really looking forward to it. We knew that the kids would have to start figuring some things out and I thought they showed the right amount of restraint with Paige. Thought they nailed this first season.

By: Fuzzbrain

05.02.2013 @ 3:29 AM

I loved this episode, for me it was by far the best one of the entire season. The tension between all of the players on both sides was practically visible–highlighted by the look on Nina’s face as she realized that she must warn her superiors about the FBI’s plans, Grannie carrying on with her mission even though she was going to be reassigned; and at the end Paige not being able to shake the feeling that her mother was up to something in the laundry room besides folding clothes. All of this has set up the show for an even more wonderful season 2, and I can’t wait to see it.

By: svetlana

05.02.2013 @ 4:05 AM

I agree with you, great episode. What I don’t get is why some people are bothered by the relationship between Phillip and Elizabeth and how it goes back and forth. A lot of relationships are like that..feelings change and ebb and flow. It drives me crazy when people complain when things dont go exactly how they think in their minds they should. It’s the creators vision and though i might not like how things go sometimes I dont see the need to keep harping on it and questioning things to death. I love margin martindale but ive been confused all season as to why they call hee granny? I’m sure im wrong but i couldve sworn she introduced herself as claudia when they met. And lastly all I kept thinking this episode is that being a spy before cell phones must have been a real bitch!

By: Fuzzbrain

05.02.2013 @ 4:35 AM

Off the top of my head I think that Elizabeth first called her (condescendingly) grannie–just because she’s old and Elizabeth doesn’t trust her.

Actually, “Granny”, or Claudia, decided on the code name “Granny.” She told it to Philip soon after they met, and Philip passed it on to Elizabeth in the conversation Brickwalls quoted above.

By: HitFix User

05.02.2013 @ 3:29 AM

while i do agree that the car chase was a little anticlimactic, i could not disagree more that the episode somehow failed as a season finale. it was fantastic. the notion a season finale needs to be better than the episodes preceding it is nonsense. that reasoning is based on viewer expectations and not based on the accomplishment of the artist. i think that argument might be for a series finale, but for a show that is returning next year i think to ask a show to become more than it is is an unfair criticism. (typing on my phone…sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes)

By: HitFix User

05.02.2013 @ 3:32 AM

also, the finale was tense and had many twists and turns…i thought it might be the best episode of the season.

By: prettok

05.02.2013 @ 4:19 PM

I was disappointed that it didn’t set up anything in play that would get me really excited about next season. Paige didn’t have to discover her parents were Russian spies, but she didn’t discover anything at the end that can’t be completely ignored next year. In fact this entire episode was a series of fake cliffhangers.

By: Heisenberg

05.02.2013 @ 3:30 AM

Very pleased with all the things the finale didn’t do. It avoided a lot of the traps series like this fall into.

I think the “Come home” scene played better than you did, but the car chase was very mediocre. Loved the Nina/Stan bits.

Almost thought Stan would (should?) start suspecting the Jenningses again because they’re randomly out of town the same night a couple the FBI is searching for fled the scene.

As far as this debut season versus other recent ones, I’d say:

Better than Season 1 of: Breaking Bad (truncated), Rubicon
About Equal to Season 1 of: Game of Thrones
Weaker than Season 1 of: The Good Wife, Homeland

By: Fuzzbrain

05.02.2013 @ 3:40 AM

I think Stan has got so much on his plate right now (marriage, affair, failure) that it’s understandable he wouldn’t start putting together the clues about Elizabeth and Philip quite yet. The show will certainly turn that corner next season though I’d be willing to bet.

By: Kyle

05.02.2013 @ 6:29 AM

Given how many magical “I just know. I’ve been in the field” improbable deductions Stan makes, I almost wouldn’t have been surprised by that.

By: Harrison

05.02.2013 @ 5:53 PM

Yes, Stan has already drawn too many unsupported-yet-correct conclusions on this front.

The things the FBI actually knew in the moments before the car chase were that Viola was pressured by a man and woman working together and that Richard Patterson was attacked by a different-looking woman working with an unseen man. But the leaps have been made that these were the same people in both cases and that they are not a “team” or “partners,” but a “couple.”

So when a woman walks down the street where the car containing the KGB transmitter is parked — to that point no different than any other person who’d walked down that street and not interfaced with the car — and another car driven by a man pulls up alongside her, Stan knows it’s *that* couple, because…because…well, they don’t call him “Kreskin” for nothing.

It’s one of the glaring missteps that almost every detective show falls prey to. The audience has the necessary information and knows the inferences are correct, so it is expected not to notice that the characters themselves aren’t privy to the information necessary to suspect, let alone be certain of, the things they’ve surmised.

By: Ken scott

05.02.2013 @ 3:33 AM

Great episode. Great season

Granny FTW

With Paige searching for something in the laundry,we were supposed to think that she may have found something. However, wouldn’t the last thing on her mind be thatcher parents were spies, similarly, every time Stan stares at the picture and then we think he is supposed to be thinking of the Jennings, it’s a real fr chance that they would be spies. Unless, in the 80’s did everyone assume everyone was a spy?

By: Casibeth

05.02.2013 @ 3:57 AM

I think the main thing we were supposed to get from the final scene with Paige is that there’s a seed of doubt planted in her mind now. She hasn’t found anything yet, and I don’t think she’s suspecting her parents of being spies at all, but she definitely thinks there’s a secret to be found. I’m guessing she’s going to start looking at them more closely moving forward. A nice conflict to set up for season 2.

By: Brian

05.02.2013 @ 3:05 PM

A kid at hear age with split of parents probably assumes that her mom is hiding an affair. When your parents split at that age, figuring out why consumes your mind.

By: Steve

05.02.2013 @ 5:37 PM

My only real gripe with an otherwise-great episode was that they seemed to be suggesting that this was the first time that Paige had any pangs of suspicion that something weird is going on with her parents. I know they’re very good at their jobs, and wouldn’t expect her to really figure anything out, but it seems like she’s old/smart enough that she would have started to suspect something much earlier.

By: Kay

05.22.2013 @ 6:12 AM

These are both good points. I`m satisfied with Paige not finding anything, but even so she is suspicious now so has reason not to take what her parents say at face value or to question things. But also it seems likely that living with these two as parents they would have had some reason before to be curious. Guess the separation has just tipped her over the edge.

By: Jim

05.02.2013 @ 3:34 AM

Just an FYI, the finest car chase committed to film is from Ronin.

By: Elwood

05.02.2013 @ 5:41 PM

You meant to say Blues Brothers

By: d weaver

05.02.2013 @ 9:40 PM

Duel

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:48 AM

Yes, Ronin. I love the car chase in To Live and Die in LA, but Ronin has *two* incredible car chases, but the second is still hands down the best ever.

And Duel is an awesome film, but the way it which it is awesome has very little to do with the actual car chase.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 3:06 PM

I say as I have said elsewhere I believe it was a homage to the classic car chases in 1968’s “Bullit”, and 1973’s “The Seven Ups” (which incidently was a homage to “Bullit” since many of the same stunts including the shot gun out the back. TSUs even had the same actor as the wheelman (obviously not the same charcter) driving the car (he also appears in “The French Connection”-another movie with a great car chase, or I should say a car chasing train chase-but having a much bigger speaking non driving role)

No CGI, no quick cuts, real tires squealing (in that way it was even better than “The Seven Ups” since there were obviously dubbed in tire squeals in some cases) producing blue smoke.

Even the actor who plays Philip probably did some of his own stunt driving, or it seemed that way. Maybe the car was on some sort of dolly for the closeup shots?

Of course it is also quite possible this was a reflection of the limited budget as well as a tribute to those classic chases of 40 years ago. :-)

The only complaint about it is that it seemed too slow like they were only going 50 mph when they should’ve looked like they were doing 90mph.

Even Philip smashing through the blocking FBI cars seemed to be out of “The Seven Ups” but with them going backwards. Yes it has been done in many movies since TSUs but the scene with the NYPD trying to blast the car with shot guns after the ramed though to cross the George Washington Bridge comes to mind.

By: Ray

05.11.2013 @ 11:20 AM

@Hunter2012, I’m with you. I got the same feeling during the car chase and enjoyed it immensely. It felt like it was lifted out of a movie from the late 70s. I was surprised when Alan picked it out as a weak point in the episode.

By: adv

05.02.2013 @ 3:38 AM

I was trying to put my finger on what bothered me about the finale, and Alan’s comment about how the season finale needs to be better than “just a very strong” episode resonated greatly with me. The finale should feel like a culmination in some respect, whereas I honestly just felt, “Hey, here’s another random episode of The Americans.” That being said, this is the best show on television, so I hate to nitpick a Mozart or Rembrandt.

By: HammRadio

05.02.2013 @ 3:39 AM

I’m not sure I agree with the “season finale” episode needs to feel like a “series finale” which you allude to with the ratings comment.

The car chase was handled well… often we see hundreds of bullets fired into a car and nary a scratch on the pursued. Here we get the great scene finding out that Elizabeth is shot.

Granny was awesome tonight. Vicious, but awesome, hope for more next year.

— nitpicker alert —
Henry’s bed with the Star Wars cover? awesome. I was roughly the same age and wish I had one. But I wouldn’t have had baseball cards from the future tacked to my headboard. 1985 Fleer… 1987!! Topps. There are plenty of “common” baseball cards around not to screw around with that.
Maybe its a Bobby Draper ripping off the wallpaper moment.

— Loved the Peter Gabriel moment. Although I wouldn’t mind some more Townshend

By: Ned Ryerson

05.02.2013 @ 7:10 AM

The baseball cards caught my eye too. I paused my DVR and searched for the Astros player. It was pitcher Jeff Calhoun.

By: SS

05.03.2013 @ 6:38 AM

I liked the enlarged version of the 10 cent Skylab stamp on Henry’s headboard ([usstampgallery.com]). That’s a nice reference back to Henry’s fascination with rockets and space, specifically his comment in the first episode about astronaut Thomas Stafford, who commanded the Apollo-Soyuz flight, the first US-Soviet joint space mission (which occurred in 1975, a year after this stamp was issued).

By: stm

05.02.2013 @ 3:40 AM

I feel the season just went in a circle, at least with our main characters.

By: Guy

05.02.2013 @ 3:49 AM

I loved this finale, and while I think there may have been lack of tension because we know that our main characters aren’t going to die or get captured… the car chase was great. The best part about it is that this is such a quiet show, and the chase was quiet as well. It’s moments like them waiting at the light while a police car zoomed by that made it all better… kind of reminded me of Drive.

By: Casibeth

05.02.2013 @ 3:50 AM

I’ve loved this show from the start and had heard early praise for the finale from other critics, so I’m surprised to say I felt a bit underwhelmed by this finale. It was absolutely a great episode of the show, no doubt, but I was definitely expecting more of a game-changer. Still, I’m looking forward to next season.

I’d rate the season overall pretty highly, but it doesn’t beat Terriers.

By: Jonas.Left

05.02.2013 @ 3:59 AM

Grannie pulled a chilling twist on the Mags Bennet Special. Margo Martindale talking to someone immobilized by a poison/drug as they slowly die is creepy gold every time. Hopefully if she does that sitcom they’ll work it into an episode.

By: PopzillaJoe

05.02.2013 @ 5:49 AM

Hahaha! Great.

By: Carri

05.02.2013 @ 7:41 AM

Oh…my…that made me laugh until I was coughing. Great idea.

By: gladly

05.02.2013 @ 2:28 PM

It’s amazing to me that Martindale can be so chilling as characters who are superficially totally different. When she says to Arkaday, “And then we say ‘It was so obvious,'” her tone was just withering. I want her to have her own show, but Claudia is a fantastic character.

By: Jonas.Left

05.02.2013 @ 8:29 PM

CARRI I bet drinking a jam jar of delicous apple pie would get help with that cough.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:50 AM

Haha, good point. Martindale is developing a nice selection of clips of her talking to her victims as they slowly die.

By: Jonas.Left

05.03.2013 @ 7:11 AM

Margo Martindale was poisoned on Dexter several years ago. Now she’s out for revenge.

And she WILL have it.

By: Rahul

05.02.2013 @ 4:00 AM

Great episode overall, but do the kids know they have a great aunt? Or, for that matter, any extended family? I feel like this is a major hole in the family fiction — harder to suspend disbelief about than Philip’s wigs. Wouldn’t the Beamans say something like, “Your parents went to see your great aunt,” at which point Paige would reply, “Who?”

By: Rahul

05.02.2013 @ 4:20 AM

Right, I guess I’m just wondering whether the kids have met any extended “family” (and, if not, whether they’ve ever wondered why). I mean, do they have KGB agents playing their grandparents?

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 5:53 AM

Yes, I bet they have either agents playing these people on some specific encounter or Phillip and Elizabeth carefully crafted a fake person by sending birthday cards from “Aunt Betty” every year. It’s not hard to create the persona of a long lost aunt for future use, as long as you build the history over time. Phillip and Elizabeth are ninja jedi masters at this level of tradecraft, so I seriously doubt they’d slip up on something so basic.

By: KevinS

05.02.2013 @ 4:29 AM

So glad the kids-hitchhiking-home-from-the-mall episode was paid off so nicely… good investment of time, there, by the creators AND the viewers.

By: prettok

05.02.2013 @ 4:24 PM

Huh?

By: KevinS

05.02.2013 @ 6:34 PM

Remember the episode where the kids were hitchhiking & picked up by the maybe-evil driver? That had zero payoff for either plot or character, which means it was pretty much a wasted block of time.

By: prettok

05.03.2013 @ 5:37 AM

We can’t READ the tone of your voice. If you’re being sarcastic, use emoticons or something.

I didn’t care for that episode either, which is why I was confused by your initial ‘praise’. But like Jersey said, it can’t be all plot all the time. Some stories are there to explore character.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 3:32 PM

I think that episode is going to have a pay off eventually. What it did was lay the ground work for Paige disobeying her parents. That episode set the precedent. It was against the rules to hitchhike as it was for them to go into her parent’s bedroom when they wren’t there so I think we will see more of that now that her curiousity has been piqued by Elizabeth’s odd behavior. Eventually I think the secret of the hitchhike will come out. I guess Elizabeth or Philip never talked to the neighbor Paige said that drove them home from the mall. :-)

By: Andy

05.02.2013 @ 4:34 AM

I thought Paige looking towards the electric box indicated that she was going to find out. The two were shown earlier in the season having a few of their belongings in there. The camera, and the look in her direction, certainly made it seem that way.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 3:39 PM

I don’t think she would’ve opened the box. As sexiest as this may sound it is unlikely a seemingly “girly-girl” like Paige is going to open up a dirty breaker box without something big prompting her to. Just like it is unlikey that she with brute strength is going to move the washing machine to reveal the hole in the wall with out a big prompt by something. And even if she did try to open the breaker box she would need to flip the right combination of breaker switches to open the “safe”.

By: Andy

05.02.2013 @ 4:35 AM

I thought Paige found out when she looked towards the electric box. They showed the two messing around with their belongings inside that space earlier in the season. The camera angle, and the look on her face, made me think so.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 3:41 PM

@ Jersey rudy:

She didn’t; just folded laundry.

By: IronedCurtains

05.02.2013 @ 4:40 AM

There’s something interesting not only to the fact that Paige suspected something about the laundry room, but that Elizabeth took the time to fold the laundry and cover her backstory in case her own daughter kept looking into it.

By: jan

05.02.2013 @ 4:59 AM

I’m actually glad the final episode didn’t end with some big cliffhanger. It seems like so many series do that now, and it’s really not necessary. There were things that certainly could be picked up next season, but I’m not really interested in the “big dramatic moment/cliffhanger” that is supposed to leave the viewer panting for more. I still want to see what happens next season; this quieter ending didn’t ruin it at all for me.

I agree with Heisenberg: “Very pleased with all the things the finale didn’t do. It avoided a lot of the traps series like this fall into.” Lately it seems like every series is trying to outdo the next, and sometimes it’s just more satisfying when the season ends on a quieter note.

By: Jared K

05.02.2013 @ 5:16 AM

I’ll just say it up front – I’m very, very impressed.

I thought that this was one of the strongest all-round first seasons that I’ve had the pleasure of watching in some time. Was it an all-time great? No. But it’s rare for any show with this level of serialization to hit the ground running and go through 13 episodes without a single glaringly obvious weak link among them. I thought that The Americans achieved that feat, and managed to achieve some pretty spectacular highs along the way.

Not everything tied together perfectly – as Kevins mentioned, the storyline about Paige and Henry hitchhiking home from the mall was never referenced again after the episode where it aired, and the constant switching back-and-forth between Phillip and Elizabeth concerning who was invested in their marriage and who was disinterested got a little old. But time and time again, the writers behind this show demonstrated their ability to craft effective dramatic tension out of a scenario where the characters involved are acting off of incomplete information while still having all said characters appear effective and competent (i.e. not making stupid, out-of-character decisions in the name of servicing/prolonging the plot). Anyone who watches a reasonable amount of TV should appreciate just how difficult that trick is pull off on a consistent basis. And I thought the finale was impeccably paced, paying off almost every storyline from Season 1 while offering great potential directions for next year.

The performances … wow. I had been only tangentially familiar with Keri Russell before this show started, and I had barely heard of Matthew Rhys. Clearly I was missing out – they were both stellar as the leads. Yet as good as they were, Noah Emmerich and Margo Martindale nearly stole the show out from under them during several episodes. I sincerely hope that Martindale is able to return next year – when she gets roles this substantial on FX dramas, good things happen. (I’ll also miss Derek Luke, who delivered an extremely memorable performance as Gregory, despite appearing in only three episodes. How he hasn’t gotten more high-profile work over the past several years is beyond me).

Looking forward, I think that the potential for Season 2 is extremely high. Of course, there’s also the potential for it to go off the rails. Homeland will be an obvious parallel given the subject matter, but I actually have more faith in the writers of The Americans to avoid the slump that Homeland experienced during the latter part of it’s Season 2. I think that overall, The Americans has a much more sustainable premise, and the characters are just as dynamic, if not more so. I’m very optimistic about the long-term viability of this show’s narrative (less so about the ratings – hopefully it will pick up between seasons!) This show has become one of my favorite programs on TV, and considering that I’ll be losing Breaking Bad and likely a few other series before it returns, I sincerely hope that it sticks around for a while.

By: vicdigital

05.02.2013 @ 5:17 AM

Sadly, I have to be a wet blanket. While the episode, in a vacuum, was great, full of tension, great acting, etc., as a season finale, it’s a big zero in my book.

Before this episode started (actually, going back to mid-season), my fear was that The Americans would essentially do the same thing as Dexter does every yeas, which is hit the big ole season-ending reset button.

Many people (most of the people commenting in here, presumably) are perfectly okay with this, and just want to see more stories with characters they like. I’m at the point where I want the stories to go somewhere bold and unexpected. At most, we have incremental changes from the status quo compared to the beginning of the season. I don’t have any tension for any of the characters anymore. Unless there’s a contract dispute, or a secondary actor gets signed onto another show, I’m not really worried that anything is going to happen to anyone. Nina, Stan, Philip, Elizabeth… all safe for the length of this series.

The Americans has just become a show that’ just… on. It’s just another show designed to fill an hour-long slot, as opposed to a show that is attempting to tell a story that has something to say. The Americans does it very very very well, but at the end of the day, it’s now just something that’s designed to be on for as long as possible at the expense of long-term storytelling logic.

??? ?????!

By: Mark

05.02.2013 @ 6:11 AM

Now I really want Stan to find out about Nina and he kills her during episode 2 of season 2 just so you’re proven wrong.

By: Jonas.Left

05.02.2013 @ 6:32 AM

I think the show deserves a little more credit than you’re giving it. Here they just finished their first season and you’re criticizing choices they haven’t even made in future seasons. The Americans can’t have established any kind of pattern or blueprint in just one season. A lot of people were saying similar things about Boardwalk Empire resetting the status quo, and then Nucky put two bullets in Jimmy Darmody’s head. Goodbye status quo, hello dropped jaws. Try to keep an open mind.

By: brickwalls

05.02.2013 @ 7:07 AM

I disagree with the status quo comment. Armador, Zhukov, Gregory were all killed in the first season. Some people even complained that the show was killing off too many characters too soon.

The show does have something to say: this show is about emotions and relationships, not jaw-dropping, coming-out-of-left-field plot twists every episode. Personally, I prefer the character-based approach rather than plot-based approach.

By: vicdigital

05.02.2013 @ 10:01 AM

This show isn’t like Boardwalk Empire. It’s like Dexter. Main character living in the shadows, secret identities, good guys all around, etc.

Of all the shows currently on TV, I put it near the top of the list because the writing, acting and directing are far and away better than almost everything else. But ultimately, this show is just about the adventures these characters are having. For the duration of this series, we’ll have uncountable numbers of episodes where they ALMOST get caught, but squeak through and remain right under everyone’s noses. We’ll delight in season after season of Stan getting SO CLOSE to discovering their identities, but something always happens.

All those characters who were killed were secondary characters whose roles can and will be filled by new characters. If this show was going to do something special, Nina would have put a bullet in Stan’s head. Or Elizabeth and the kids DID have to run off to Canada.

See? THAT’S a show that follows logic AND would be cool and something I haven’t seen a million times. Russian spies on the run in Canada. Granted, it’s a totally different sort of show, but one that makes more sense than hitting the reset button.

The only show on TV right now that IS doing it right is Breaking Bad. There’s been a five-season arc where Walter White has gone from nobody to Heisenberg. The show has never hit the reset button. It’s been a steady escalation with the final battle coming this summer. I fully expect (or at least BELIEVE) that Walter White will probably not survive the series. The one outcome I don’t expect is that everything gets wrapped up nice and tidy and they get to live out their lives normally.

Dexter is fixing to have it’s last season, and while the last few seasons have all been wheel-spinners, I fully expect momentous things to happen this season. Real stakes. No resets.

If The Americans is happy being a show that’s just about the characters and everyone is happy that the show resets every season, then that’s what the show is, and I’ll know that for the long haul, it’s not for me.

By: O

05.02.2013 @ 3:50 PM

There has been only one season so far. How do you know things will not change in the future?
And even if it doesn’t, not every show can be the Wire and Breaking Bad that manages to shuffle/keep things moving every year. When the Americans becomes repetitive and boring, then drop it, but why complain when this hasn’t happened yet?
Also some good shows try to do this and fail miserably (Homeland, Sons of Anarchy come to mind).

By: Jonas.Left

05.02.2013 @ 4:47 PM

For all the legitimte criticisms of Dexter for wheel spinning, let’s remember that the show killed off Doakes in season two and Dexter’s wife in season four. Dexter may not have been caught in the early years, but there was a sense of danger to the show until the fifth season. The American’s first season, as with many series is a lot of world building, establishing of the characters, and setting the stakes that the rest of its run will play with.

Also, the unexpecteed is great, but it can’t be at the expense of the show existing. This is a spy show. If the Jennings can’t spy the show can’t be a spy show. Theoretically, The Americans could start next season with Phillip and Elizabeth getting caught. From then on the show shifts into a drama about two people living with the consequences of living a lie. We could see them struggle to maintain their love despite their seperate imprisonments. There could be shattering scenes of their children trying to come to terms with the truth of their lives and how it would effect their relationships with their parents and perhaps even their nation. That would be unexpected (except by me, your humble genius). But it would be too much too soon, because before you can upset the status quo that much the audience has to think they know what to expect.

Of course, some people just want to be the cool kid that calls “jumped the shark” before anybody else.

By: vicdigital

05.02.2013 @ 4:54 PM

I know how it’s going to go because I’ve seen thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of TV. I realize this is a problem with ME, and not so much the show(s), as this is what all TV shows do. Much of our ability to watch TV shows is to suspend disbelief, not only in the stuff that’s happening on the show, but suspend disbelief that something significant or unique is going to happen to the characters. Except for (spoiler alert) Ned Stark in “Game of Thrones”, except for series finales or contract squabbles, no main character is ever REALLY in any danger. Even the shows I put up as current paragons of the form, “The Wire” and “Breaking Bad”. We have to allow/force ourselves to wonder, “Gee whiz! I wonder if he’s going to be able to get out of THIS predicament!”

All of that to say that here in 2013, I keep hoping that we get at least a few shows here and there that make an effort to do something different than the 10,000 series we’ve had over the decades. The Americans was trying to do something different over the course of the season, and I was really really really hoping that the season finale would provide some really bold, interesting, unexpected game changers.

Sigh…. nope.

Reset button. Yes, it did it maybe better than other shows, but it’s still just a reset.

I’ll still maintain that Breaking Bad isn’t guilty of the same sins. BB has had a clear, steady escalation which has been in place since the very beginning. It really is one long story arc. From the beginning it’s been pointing to a final confrontation.

If Walter White HAD decided to go on the lam in Mexico, that would have been a fascinating choice and one that would even moreso make me not know what was coming up from week to week. Could it have also failed miserably? Of course.

As far as complaining about something that hasn’t happened, it already HAS happened. Going forward, will you really have any amount of anxiety that Philip and Elizabeth will ever split up permanently? Will you ever worry that one or both of them might actually die? Or Stan? or Nina? Gadd is still expendable, but I think he’s safe until season three. Too much of a feel-good story with Richard Thomas being on a good TV show. I CAN complain about it because The Americans had an opportunity with this season finale to show that it’s got something bigger it’s shooting for than just being yet another entertaining TV show that must follow the rules of resetting the status quo of the SHOW (not necessarily all the individual characters) at the end of every season.

One final thing. The marriage question this season was pretty interesting. I haven’t seen any show tackle anything like this. It’s the most fascinating part of the show. That said, I’m dreading another whole season where every other week one or the other of them is questioning whether or not their marriage is real or if they even want to still be married. We did that this season, and while all marriages have ups and downs, if these two characters are still wrestling with the “Is this real?” question after the events of the season finale, then that will be excruciating. But would this show and individual episodes still be interesting if this dynamic is removed and they are now both actively working towards making it a real marriage?

In 2013, I’m no longer interested in never-ending shows that are most interested in being ON, and making it to the magical 100 episodes for syndication (is that even still a viable goal for dramas anymore?). I want a show to have an ending in place when it starts. I want a show that has a plan. I want a complete story arc. 99.9% of shows will never do that. I’m now looking for the shows that have the guts to call their shot right from the start. The Americans stepped up to the plate and whiffed. It’s “just another show”.

Okay, essay finished.

By: vicdigital

05.02.2013 @ 5:01 PM

Dexter had an absolutely brilliant first season and almost second season. Over the course of the last three episodes of season two, I was holding my breath as if watching a tightrope walker. Stuff was happening! Doakes was killed! It’s all coming to a head! Dexter is going to turn himself in and then things are really going to change!! It was the perfect, logical, emotional next step for the character.

But then… “Wait a minute. I don’t want to turn myself in. I want to continue being a serial killer.”

Reset button.

That was probably the most crushing moment in TV watching for me, seeing a show that was so close to doing something I’d never seen before only to so clumsily and obviously hit the reset button.

By: Jonas.Left

05.02.2013 @ 5:28 PM

Thousands and thousands AND thousands?!! Wow. I’ve only watched thousands and thousands of hours of television. That must be a heavy burden to bear.

QUICK POLL: Has anybody else who has posted here seen thousands and thousands AND thousands of hours of television? At minimum, you must have seen six thousands of hours to answer in the positive (if you need at least two thousands to have thousands, then thousands and thousands AND thousands has to be at least six thousands).

By: vicdigital

05.02.2013 @ 7:36 PM

lol. Yes. Thousands and thousands AND thousands. I’m 45 years old. If I say I’ve watched only one hour of TV ever day for the past 40 years, that’s 14,600 hours. Even if it’s half that number, or a third of that number, it’s still thousands and thousands AND thousands.

But point being, and you’re a smart person so I don’t think it was lost on you, is that by the time we’ve reached adulthood, we’ve seen an insane amount of storytelling. And this isn’t even counting books we’ve read or movies we’ve seen. By this point, while I’m okay with some (most) TV shows following the same old story beats, every once in a while, I really really (and here’s an extra REALLY, just for you), just want a show to break out of the same old traditional mold.

For you, The Americans as it currently is might very well be different enough that it satisfies your criteria. Awesome. At no point have I said that anyone is an idiot for liking this show. I like it. I just wanted it to be brave enough to not just be another TV show like all the rest. If you want to call that being overly critical, or wanting to yell shark-jump!, then fine.

If you’re still okay with watching TV shows do the same thing over and over, then I envy you. Yes, it is such a heavy burden to bear to be so wise and knowing about TV as I am. You’re much better off staying where you are.

By: Jonas.Left

05.02.2013 @ 8:18 PM

First, let me agree with you that I am both smart and funny. You NAILED that. And second, I can see where you’re coming from. I actually consider myself a discriminating viewer. But your perspective strikes me as too cynical, especially in regard to The Americans. If in a year, we have seen a season close that repeats the same beats and material with nothing new, then it will be time to dismiss The Americans as merely a well acted, tense thriller with compelling central characters who have a unique relationship. As much as I love a show that’s legitimitely shocking and twisty, that’s not the only way for a story to be transcendant. You kind of dismiss the character driven approach, but to me that’s what really distinguished the show. This series delves into its characters in a way that no other thriller of this type does. I still watch True Blood as a sort of guilty pleasure and that’s a show whose audience never knows what’s going to happen, except that it will usually be ridiculous. I don’t think its unpredictable nature makes it good or novel, because its too messy and chaotic.

Every story has the burden of allowing us to suspend our disbelief, but we have the burden of suspending our cynicism. Based on this season, I think The Americans is worth it.

By: vicdigital

05.02.2013 @ 10:01 PM

I agree with everything you say, and yes, I’m probably a couple of notches too cynical, but at this point in my TV watching life, I want something that reaches for immortality, so to speak. Many shows try to do this, and fail at the end (looking at YOU, Lost), so it’s a very risky gamble for a show to really truly go outside the box.

As an indicator of how good I think The Americans is, I actually watched it week-to-week, rather than waiting until season three or four to make sure it didn’t get cancelled early or that it was able to maintain its quality. The show is clearly several notches above almost everything else on TV.

That said… the resetting of the status quo at the end of this episode lets me know that we’re pretty much going to just get variations on a theme. More variations of Stan/Nina/Philip/Elizabeth/Paige/Gadd/Martha almost, but not quite discovering the truth behind whatever secret they’re part of the Venn diagram for. The big reveals won’t happen until the series end, and if this series is successful, that could be five or six years down the line. I’ve seen this with Dexter, and for ME, it’s just something I don’t have the desire to do anymore.

I want stakes. I want game-changers to be able to happen at any time. I want to not know what’s going to happen. With the finale of The Americans, I wasn’t surprised at any point once I realized that we were just hitting the reset button.

Back to Breaking Bad, there is also the persistent “Will he get caught?” tension, but it’s with multiple sources, not just Hank and the DEA. Walter hid it from Skylar as long as he could, but she found out, and now she’s part of the ‘team’ and has brought a completely different tone to Walter’s actions. With The Americans, it’s just Philip/Elizabeth vs Stan/USA every week. Every once in a while they also hide their actions from Mother Russia, but it’s always a minor plot point.

What would really be bold and game-changing is if one or both of Philip and Elizabeth secretly turned during the season and began actively working against USSR. Then we’d have some heavy stakes and unknown territory. Of course, my assumption would be that if they DID do this that by season’s end, they would turn BACK to being spies and everything would be reset to ‘normal’.

By: madmeme

05.03.2013 @ 4:00 AM

@VicDigital – Watch ‘Rectify’; IMO, a more interesting and unique show than ‘The Americans’ (first season only covered 6 days). More of a game-changer in the sense that I doubt it even could have gotten made 5 years ago.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 6:11 AM

I completely disagree with your conclusions and I’ll tell you why. You estimate you’ve seen 14,000 hours or TV or whatever? So what. Most of that is pre-Sopranos, and even after the Sopranos you’ve maybe seen a couple hundred hours of quality, post-Sopranos TV at BEST. The new narrative dramas don’t run 24 eps a season, and most don’t run more than 5 or 6 seasons.

Further, there are very few shows on TV that have done what The Americans did. In Episode 2 this show depicted it’s main characters killing an innocent security guard, for no reason other than he got too close. Breaking Bad didn’t do this. The Sopranos didn’t do this. Boardwalk Empire didn’t do this. Dexter didn’t do this. The Americans has been telling us from the day one that these characters are not heroes, they are to us, as Americans, evil. And we’re still rooting for them. So while I appreciate your attempt to apply the old rules, they simply don’t apply. The Americans has had an exceptional first season. It has broken a slew of television “rules” and avoided many of the genre pitfalls that would have made it simply a procedural. It’s better than most of the shows currently airing just because of that, and it achieves that irrespective of the incredibly writing, acting, and directing on display week after week.

By: madmeme

05.03.2013 @ 10:24 AM

@Joel – The Shield did something even more shocking in it’s pilot. As good as The Americans is, I’m afraid you’re wrong if you think it’s broken any ‘rules’ in modern television serialized dramas; it’s building on all that went before.

Besides, VicDigital wasn’t referring to the narrative of this season per se, but to the fact that it appears next season will begin, more or less, at close to the same place that this one started – with all of the main characters alive, in place, and doing the same things again.

By: HISLOCAL

05.03.2013 @ 12:35 PM

VICDIGITAL – Your basic complaint is that they “only” made a show that was exciting and compelling to watch, with great characters, a cool theme, and good storylines.

So……what’s the complaint? That Phillip didn’t inject the vice president with a supervirus, and then return to his home planet of Zarth to rule the green 6-armed people? What twist would have satisfied you? Game of Thrones killed off Ned Stark because that’s the thing that springboarded the rest of the series into motion. If Ned turns Cersei and Joffrey over, they die and the story is over. If Dexter turns himself in, he goes to jail and the story is over. The reason Heisenberg never “reset” is because Walter White is a drip, and there’s no need to go back to him teaching high school science. When your lead is a spy or a serial killer, there’s 100 more stories to be told in that construct, so you keep it around.

The Beatles only ever made incremental changes to their sound. They didn’t fire Paul McCartney after the first album and replace him with a fusion saxophonist. That seems to be what you’re asking for from TV shows.

By: joel

05.03.2013 @ 2:25 PM

@Madmeme: Yeah, everyone always likes to mention The Shield, but I think The Shield essentially copped out by spending the rest of the series humanizing Vic Mackey and making him incredibly sympathetic and even heroic. He never does anything as contemptuous as that again, and even the early Julien subplot is turned around in such a way to make Vic sympathetic to Julien. Later in the series when his chickens finally come home to roost it’s the IAD cop investigating him who becomes the villain of the show. I’m not saying that the Shield’s pilot wasn’t a bold move and a first for American television, but it never really lives up to the very precedent it sets for itself.

By: vicdigital

05.03.2013 @ 6:14 PM

@madmeme Yes, you understand my point completely. I know I’ve mentioned the ‘reset’ button at least a dozen times, and that’s what I’m complaining about. When a new show comes along that’s exciting and unpredictable and extremely well-made, I get excited that maybe THIS show will have the courage to NOT resort to the season-ending reset button.

For all it’s many many merits, The Americans hit the reset button. This season began with Philip and Elizabeth living in a ‘fake’ marriage, engaged in weekly covert missions, and living down the street from their FBI archenemy.

Next season will have the exact same rhythms, but with different details. Yes, I realize that every TV show does this. Every show has a premise and it needs to stick with that premise every week.

I don’t expect Philip to inject the President with a supervirus, as cool as that might be. I want a show like this to travel down unexpected paths. And this show has shown it will not be able to do that. The show will never NOT be able to be about a husband and wife spy team pretending to be married and living next door to their enemy. As far away as the show might ever SEEM like it might go, the finale showed that this status quo will trump all other storytelling decisions. No matter how perfect a story might be that has Elizabeth choosing safety in Canada for her children, the show will never make that choice. Unless you suspend your disbelief, there’s no tension that such a bold story choice might ever occur.

I mean, seriously, does anyone now think that Philip and Elizabeth might ever get caught? It’s never going to be tension about IF they might get caught, but How They Get Out Of It.

Does anyone think that this show will ever let Stan find out who Philip and Elizabeth really are? Yes, this is where the most drama from the show comes from, but as times goes on, the storytelling gymnastics shows like this have to perform get more and more unbelievable. Dexter avoiding getting caught one season, maybe two, I can buy. But after the sixth or seventh major highly-publicized (within the world of the show) killing, it just feels totally false.

COULD The Americans totally fool me and break all the rules for this type of show? Maybe. But when it had its first real chance to make a unique statement and go places we haven’t seen… it hit the reset button.

“See you next season for more of the same stories!”

It’ll be fun to revisit this thread at the end of NEXT season after seeing a whole bunch of twists and turns and deaths ultimately result in… Philip and Elizabeth living in a fake marriage, engaging in spy missions, almost getting caught, and living down the street from their archenemy.

By: Jonas.Left

05.03.2013 @ 7:04 PM

JOEL I think that Vic Mackey did do quite a few despicable things throughout the series. Forrest Whitaker felt like a villain because we were so heavily invested in the Strike Team’s point of view. I think the show made it pretty clear that both Vic and Shane regretted killing Terry. Shane spent several episodes having a breakdown over it. Vic had a conversation with Aceveda where he, without confessing, expressed his regret. I think it was pretty clear that he realized he’d gone too far. I’m guessing that was a way for the writers to slightly walk back from something that turned out to be more extreme than they wanted it to be before it defined Vic Mackey as irredeemable. The fact that he spent so much of the series trying to redeem himself only to fail was incredible television.

VICDIGITAL You think it would be cool to inject the President with a super-virus? You monster.

By: vicdigital

05.03.2013 @ 10:46 PM

You don’t think it would be cool to see a raging, frothing-at-the-mouth Ronald Reagan chasing after Philip and Elizabeth? Or Reagan writing in the bed, feverish from the super-virus, with Nancy Reagan tied up nearby being forced by Philip and Elizabeth to say Yes to Drugs?

Maybe that’s just me…

By: Jonas.Left

05.03.2013 @ 11:08 PM

VICDIGITAL If we can leave Nancy out of it, then I’m on board. We can pit Zombie Reagan against Mecha Stalin in an epic fight for the future of humanity and it will be the most awesome season of The Americans EVER.

Seriously though. That Nancy Reagan thing is dark even for me. Wow.

By: vicdigital

05.03.2013 @ 11:24 PM

What if it’s twin mini Nancy Reagans in kimonos, talking in unison as they try to communicate with giant mutated Ronald Reagan as he emerges from his virus-induced megacocoon?

By: vicdigital

05.03.2013 @ 11:26 PM

I don’t think a simple Zombie Reagan would have the smallest change against Mecha Stalin.

By: Jonas.Left

05.04.2013 @ 1:27 AM

VICDIGITAL We are going to make this happen, man.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 4:24 PM

@Vicdigital:

I read your post and the jist of them is that you don’t like the “reset button” in which the central character(s)-the characters the show are built around-are back to more or less where they started in that the people they are fooling are still in the dark.

I don’t mind it myself because the main characters getting out of situations is the nature of the beast of the show is built around them. Like with Dexter on “Dexter”. He had to get away again and again from tight spots since the show is about him being a “good” serial killer killing other murders and serial killers the justice system couldn’t catch or had let go. How would you have “Dexter” with that premise if he is in prison on death row? So it had to be “reset”.

The thing I guest would be to have other parts of the story be resolved or in crises, like how Sgt. Doaks and Dexter’s wife were killed and Debra killing LaGuerta moved the plot in their respective seasons.

But for Dexter himself the thrill has to be how will he get out of it. He can’t kill if he is in prison, unless he kills his fellow prisoners.

The same with “Breaking Bad”. That show is about a miquetoast high school chemistry teacher who out of false pride refused charity from friend he thought cheated him somehow and decided to make and sell drugs for the money to treat his cancer and leave an inheritance for his family instead. Along the way he becomes a major Drug King pin.

During that meteoric journey (in just over one year in the show timeline) he has had some close calls with the DEA not finding out who he was even with Hank being a DEA Agent and brother in law and so is right under Hank’s nose in a similar way Philip and Elizabeth are right under Stan’s nose (Hank can be forgiven because Walter is family and who would expet a chemistry teacher with cancer being a major drug manufacture and traficker?).

In that show often Walter and/or Jesse are often about to be caught by the law or killed by other drug traffickers but they always seem to get away. Reset. How could Walter cliamb the drug dealer food chain without resets?

The same with “The Americans” which is about a KGB couple living a fake marriage with real kids in typical suburban America while commiting espionage for the Soviet Union and the strain on their domestic life it has doing that and how their domestic life interferes with their missions. If they are caught and put in prison that premise ends.

I guess I will be deliberately contentious and asks you: What in your view would’ve been a good way to NOT hit the reset button and move the plot forward with the Jenningses? Have one of them captured?

By: vicdigital

05.04.2013 @ 9:07 PM

Yes! That would have been a true game-changer. Once that happens, as a viewer, you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Let’s look at the ultimate (right now) game-changer TV show, Game of Thrones. It’s based on a series of books that they are thus far being relatively faithful to. At the end of season/book one, the defacto main character, Ned Stark, gets his head cut off. WHOA! Once that happens, as a viewer, you can’t use any of the lifetime of TV-watching logic you’ve built up to guess where the show is going to go next. Truly, anyone can be killed. Any encounter where someone is in danger can ACTUALLY result in that character dying.

Now, if Game of Thrones was JUST a TV show, and using the same rhythms and beats as The Americans, Ned Stark is granted a reprieve right before the blade comes down on his head. Robert Baratheon recovers from his boaring wound. Jon Snow simply continues to learn what life on the Wall is like. Tyrion and Cersei continue to play mind-games behind the scenes. Etc. The show would have settled into a tidy, easily-manageable set of plot types and barring minor and even significant events happening in the world, the show would basically reset to the state that the viewers have come to expect.

Thankfully, the show is being faithful to the books, so hardly any of the plot points follow the same tired cliches that all other TV shows end up resorting to.

Additionally, Game of Thrones has a definite ending it’s moving towards. Every episode is an important, vital chapter in the overall story. The Americans just wants to be a really good version of every other show on regular TV, where it just wants to tell you a little story where you spend an hour with these characters and make sure you come back next week for another little story with these characters you like. “We promise not to shake things up too much.”

True, it’s probably not fair that I’m judging The Americans with this criteria, because it isn’t claiming to be more than what it is. It’s just that for ME, I was hoping against hope that when it came down to showing us its hand that The Americans was going to veer into uncharted territory. It didn’t.

That’s on ME, not the show. Those were my hopes and expectations, not promises the show itself was making.

So in the end, I’m pretty certain how the various story arcs will go, season-to-season. We won’t have a true game-changer. There can’t really be an endgame because we know the Russians don’t win. I could maybe handle one more season of Philip and Elizabeth almost getting caught by Stan week after week if I thought there was an endgame coming. But enduring a whole season of similar stories knowing that another reset is coming at season’s end? My shoulders slump and my spirit sags just thinking about it.

By: vicdigital

05.04.2013 @ 9:18 PM

But what would REALLY be a game-changer, is Elizabeth, after she gets captured, discovers that the US government was lying about Gregory dying in the gunfight, and that they actually kept him alive using Bionic technology. So now, Cyborg Gregory is using his charms to get Elizabeth to turn against Mother Russian. Cy-Gregory promises that if she can deliver Philip and Directorate-S to the FBI that her children will be safe and that they will be able to go off together in Witness Relocation. So Elizabeth is released back into the wild where she gives Philip and Grannie an amazing story of how she escaped. But now, she’s a double-agent. But NOW, she finds that she’s truly falling in love with Philip, and by season’s end, she’s flipped back to being loyal to Russia and in an exciting season finale, Philip has to face off against Cyborg Gregory in a battle where only one can survive. (Guess who?)

By: HISLOCAL

05.06.2013 @ 1:22 PM

I feel like you guys aren’t taking my mockery seriously enough.

By: Anonymous

05.02.2013 @ 5:26 AM

I was so convinced that Granny was planning to sacrifice herself on Philip and Elizabeth’s behalf to keep their identities safe once she realized what was going on, perhaps by distracting the FBI agents or otherwise falling on her sword to let them escape. It was perfect — she was due to be transferred back to Russia, she had gone off book and killed the CIA guy that ordered Zhukov’s assassination, and it would have proven to Phil + Liz how much she was actually in their corner. And Margo was only a guest star, not a series regular.

But I’m glad to be wrong and I’m glad that they left open the possibility that she might return if her pilot isn’t picked up.

By: aforkosh

05.02.2013 @ 6:38 AM

I’d be curious what the Russian-to-English ratio was in the script. This was certainly one of the most subtitled episodes I’ve ever seen. By the way, I really like using yellow for a subtitle color. It’s subdued but still stands out.

By: Brandon

05.02.2013 @ 6:44 AM

Excellent first season and an excellent finale. It sets up the second season beautifully without having to blow up anything major. For a show that’s as quiet and subdued as this one, anything bigger would have seemed out of place. Instead we get one of the most intense missions and the closest our protagonists have been to getting caught. Wild, exciting ride. Sad that we will be without The Americans for a year but I am extremely fulfilled. This will end up being one of the top 5 shows of 2013, if not top 3.

By: Gregory Ellwood

05.02.2013 @ 7:14 AM

I agree with Alan. I was hoping for something more climactic in the finale. Loved the first half, but then thought it fizzled at the end and almost became predictable. Really hope Margo can come back though. I also would have LOVED to see the longer edit of the scene where she kills the guy. It felt like her final dramatic beat was cut short there.

By: Budweiser

05.02.2013 @ 7:44 AM

Really enjoyed the season finale. Thought it was an upgrade to the few previous episodes. Great series that I hope stays around for years to come. Matthew Rhys is excellent week after week.

By: Chesterfield

05.02.2013 @ 8:04 AM

I’m sorry, Alan… wait, no, I’m not sorry at all – I love this show SO much. While your gripes may be fair, I don’t think they sink the show, in fact I don’t even agree that they’re necessarily negatives. Elizabeth’s never really been indecisive, she changed her mind once, over a perceived betrayal. While I always felt that the more interesting story the show told was the one where their familiarity with each other began to breed love and it seems like they are getting back to that in season 2. She was holding out, but in the end she realized they had a level of trust that she can share with no one else. It was nice.

Also, I kind of agree that the ep. played like “another great episode of Americans” rather than “a fantastic end to a great season”, but I don’t really think it’s a huge problem because the show has kept such a high level this season that I’m pre-sold on season 2 well before the finale plays out.

By: chrispepper

05.02.2013 @ 10:30 AM

Pretty much agree with everything you said. The Flip-Flopping was never a thing, they only ever fully ‘broke up’ when Philip moved out, everything else was just a progression leading up to that point.

By: Harrison

05.02.2013 @ 6:26 PM

Yes, these claims of constant “reversals” ring false. There weren’t reversals, there was ambivalence.

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 9:23 AM

There were only two major “reversals” I believe: When Philip figured out it was Elizabeths’s accurate reports back home about Philip liking it here too much and Philip lying about Irina that derailed the relationship. The other things that irratated it, Gregory and how and when to tell The Centre about how the Americans were reacting to the assasination attempt on Reagan were minor hiccups that had them make up at the ends of the episodes. I think all of the secrets between them are out (except for Henry and Paige having a possible Russian half brother) so unless either of them doing something stuped like doing a Stan and falling in love with a target the fake “marriage” is going to be as real as it ever going to be-unless in season two they actually marry each other like “Clark” (Philip) and Martha did.

That would be interesting. Which would be the legal real marriage? “Clark” and Martha or Philip and Elizabeth-which aren’t their real names incidently. Are both marriages valid? Invalid? If both are legal which would be the “real” marriage by American law and which would be the bigomus one? Clark and Martha being the real one since it happened first? :-)

By: garyc

05.02.2013 @ 11:05 AM

Liked the finale, and this show’s first season, a lot. Still think Terriers had the best first season of any recent mystery/suspense drama. The people who made it seemed to have such a great sense of where they wanted it to go, and how they wanted to use their characters, by the fourth or fifth episode of the season. The Americans is probably a little harder to plot since they have to maintain Philip and Elizabeth’s true work as a secret for the show to work, which might hem the producers in on how to write the show in future seasons. Especially liked Grannie this year. Paige is going to have to become more suspicious as the show develops. Glad they started going there.

By: garyc

05.02.2013 @ 11:29 AM

Think what the show is really about is loyalty – what makes people loyal, what tests are made on their loyalty in difficult situations, how do they decide between pulls on their loyalty coming from different directions. For season two; will Stan be able to maintain his loyalty if his marriage breaks up on account of his job; will finding out her parent’s true careers make Paige question her loyalty to them, or to her “country?”

By: che

05.02.2013 @ 12:56 PM

I loved that the scene where Granny killed Patterson showed what a pro she is–how swift, efficient, and cold she was. No fighting or other derring-do. And she managed to kill him while also telling him why she was doing it (but not in the “Fallacy of the Talking Killer” way that would allow the victim to fight back or escape). That scene, and Granny’s concern over the possible trap, underscored that she has the position she has because she has probably been a field agent for a long, long time. Elizabeth has dumped on her frequently for not knowing what it’s like to be out there, having the easier job, etc. She doesn’t realize that Granny has done it all before and probably very well. Granny also continued to zealously look out for Phillip and Elizabeth even after E beat her up and E & P asked for her to be replaced. Elizabeth, on the other hand, has let her emotions affect her in her work several times. So who is the real professional?

Way off on a side note: it amuses me every week to see Adam Arkin listed as producer. Does anyone else remember that great 60s movie his father was in, “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming”?

By: Kevin

05.02.2013 @ 1:22 PM

He also directed a couple, including this one I believe. And I agree, the Granny scene was fantastic stuff (along with most of the rest of this show). Can’t wait for Season 2!

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:35 AM

Who was the guy Claudia killed?

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 9:01 AM

@MCM99:

That was Richard Patterson. He was the CIA Director of Operations and Planning for the Soviet Union. He was the one who ordered on behalf of the FBI agents and the scientist killed the hits on the three KGB Generals in Moscow including Zhukov, Elizabeth’s father figure, mentor and former handler and as it turned out Claudia’s lover of her life. She tried to set up Elizabeth to kill him despite Moscow ordering that no retaliation for it would be done; but Elizabeth didn’t after she came to her senses and realized that Claudia had minipulated her. Instead she got revenge personally for the man she loved and so disobeyed orders.

It is possible if Claudia told “The Centre” what she had done that is the reason she has been reassigned, but I doubt it and I think it was Elizabeth and Philip’s-probably the KGB’s two best agents in the US and so probably would have some pull despite being suspected moles-asking “The Centre” to do it.

By: billmelater

05.04.2013 @ 12:31 PM

I LOVED “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming”! That was Alan Arkin’s first movie role, and he won a Best Actor Oscar for it. “Emergency, emergency…every to get from street” (one of my fave lines…gotta see the film).

By: che

05.06.2013 @ 12:17 AM

Haha, Billmelater! and now Adam is producing & directing a show that could be called “The Russians Are Here, the Russians Are Here!”

By: john mosby

05.02.2013 @ 1:12 PM

Sorry to nitpick, but in the first episode, when the younger illegal got stabbed chasing the defector, why couldn’t Phillip have taken him to the secret KGB surgeon, like he did with Elizabeth in this episode?

By: Deb

05.02.2013 @ 2:16 PM

you’re right! I didn’t think of that…

By: brickwalls

05.02.2013 @ 2:58 PM

In the pilot, Elizabeth and Philip had to be at the drop off point at a certain time. They didn’t have time to contact and wait for a KGB surgeon.

By: john mosby

05.02.2013 @ 4:16 PM

Ah yes, that was the scene of her kicking the car at the empty pier. So he dumped off the stabbed guy at a hospital as a last-ditch idea. Thanks!

By: Matt_H

05.02.2013 @ 1:23 PM

Anyone else find it weird that the codename for the KGB project to plant deep-cover operatives is Directorate “S”? Shouldn’t they have picked a Cyrillic letter? It really stands out to me when Nina and Arkady are speaking to each other in Russian and then say “Directorate S” pretty much in English.

By: john mosby

05.02.2013 @ 1:50 PM

The cyrillic letter for the “S” sound is “C,” but the name of the letter is pronounced “ehss” in Russian, pretty close to the way we pronounce the name of the letter “S” in English. Kind of like French and English say the name of the letter “L” the same in both languages.

By: Matt_H

05.02.2013 @ 2:55 PM

Ah ok. Thanks for the info.

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:37 AM

John Mosby – Do you speak Russian? I am always curious when subtitles are in shows like this if the translation is good and whether the actors pull off the language/ accents?

By: njp584

05.02.2013 @ 1:27 PM

I loved it. I thought it wove all the disparate strands of storytelling together, gave a sense of closure on plenty of storylines, and pivoted to open up new lines of interest and intrigue for future seasons. A very VERY strong season finale.

By: Zach

05.02.2013 @ 1:51 PM

Couldn’t agree more with Sepinwall. It was a good episode, but it wasn’t an “incredible” season finale. Really surprised that looking back on the season the only “important” character to get killed was Amador (and I guess you could make an argument for Vlad).

Oh and glad to hear the producers admit the weather made the continuity of the show’s timeline hard to follow. For a few episodes there I thought it already was the following winter.

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:39 AM

Gregory was an important character.

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 6:26 AM

Gregory too but Vlad wasn’t an important character although his death has effected the plot by promping Stan to lie to Nina which in turned prompted her to confess to her KGB boss.

By: Deb

05.02.2013 @ 2:06 PM

Watch out Philip! Agent Stan seems a whole lot sexier to me after this episode. The love scenes between Philip and Martha are disgusting because of Philip’s ugly wig and his cruel contempt for her. Stan wins sympathy points because his wife and his lover have turned on him. He needs a hug! Not only didn’t he catch Philip, he has to babysit, too? Oh, snap!

By: Athabasca

05.02.2013 @ 2:18 PM

Anyone catch the scythe motif as an echo of Mad Men, ‘The hobo code’, and what the twins left as a warning for Walter White in Breaking Bad? Neat echoes here and there, though if we’re really being chronologically pure, MM’s came first.

By: Athabasca

05.02.2013 @ 2:22 PM

Scythe motif being, the one Arkady crudely spraypainted on the side of the cars…

By: Girl Detective

05.02.2013 @ 2:52 PM

I continue to like the contrast between the Phillips’ “fake” marriage, where they’re fooling around on the side but with intent not personal need, and the Beeman’s “real one” where Stan is sleeping with Nina because he’s so needy. I also loved how the power dynamic between Nina and Stan inverted, and with his wife too, so he’s really losing on all levels–home, work, bedroom.

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 6:38 AM

I do wonder if Nina regretted confessing to Arkady with her Oh my God to Stan when Stan told her he was finally coming through to her. I lean toward her regret. That is if she could take it back she would and not say a thing to Arkady. She was nervous waiting for Stan to comeback but when he didn’t come back in time she decided to go to work so she would be able to maintain her tie to the Russians telling them what she knew, but only because she thought she had to. As it turned it was a damn good thing she did or she would’ve been left high and dry.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 9:11 PM

True but she went back at the very last minute after waiting for Stan so she wasn’t missed at work which tells me that she wanted to keep her tie to the Soviets just in case Stan didn’t come through. If she was eager to trip up the FBI she probably would’ve left for the Embassy almost as soon as Stan left. She doesn’t want to cut herself off from options unless it absolutely can’t be helped. but yes by telling Arkady she did screw herself out of being exfiltrated.

By: GarySF

05.02.2013 @ 2:55 PM

Enjoyed the episode, and the season as a whole, but I thought the car chase was a little silly, both as a plot point and in terms of execution. Doubt they would’ve been able to elude capture that easily. I thought a better gambit would’ve been for Philip to drive up to Liz casually, and start a coversation…”Oh, hey, I thought that was you, blah blah blah. Can I give you a lift?” Except for the possiblity that agents with binoculars could make him through the disguise, it would’ve been a far easier and less suspicious way to get Liz away from the car. But the writers chose the big action set piece instead. (Those cops sure don’t know how to set up a roadblock.)

By: Robinson

05.02.2013 @ 2:55 PM

I found the finale exceptional: the season-ending revelations didn’t take the form of “this character dies” or “this character finds out they’re spies”, but rather thematic revelations like “the shield they’re so scared about is just another lie”, and character revelations like “Claudia is actually on their side.” (I also found the “Come home” more compeling than you did, mostly thanks to the choice to say it in Russian).

Even if I hadn’t liked the finale, I would still have high hopes for the rest of the series- consider that previous FX drama Justified also had a great first season that ended with a forgettable finale.

By: Brian

05.02.2013 @ 3:09 PM

This is definitely one of the best shows on tv. I guess my only question about the episode is how she was shot in the lower stomach while sitting in a car? Unless I missed the fact that they were shooting prior to her getting in the car or there was someone close enough to be aiming down into the car or that she was moving around in the car in a way to be shot where she was.

By: berkowit28

05.03.2013 @ 6:50 AM

You could see several bullet holes in the windscreen. I’m certainly not expert enough to say whether her stomach could be in the line of fire, but it’s not implausible that a bullet would deflect passing through the windscreen. She was in the front seat.

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 8:42 AM

I think it was actually one of the agents behind them that shot Elizabeth as they back up though the road block not Stan. There were at least two FBI agents firing on the car as the Jennings was backing up that came from the two cars that pulled up to blck the Jenningses. If you look at the scene again, just before they hit the cars there is a very bright spark below the level of the car door window slot where Elizabeth was sitting. That is when Elizabeth got hit by the entering bullet. I am sure the agent was aiming for her head but at least one of his shots went below the mark and hit her in the torso which would be half way down the door.

Incidentally if anyone is wondering why Elizabeth didn’t react the adrenalin was pumping so much it masked the pain. That happens in real life with policemen and soldiers getting shot and not realizing it until after everything calmed down.

By: hunter2012

05.04.2013 @ 9:23 PM

As an alternative theory as to how Elizabeth was shot I rewatched the scene and the big spark was likely caused by a bullet fired from the front that hit the right hand (left side from our POV) side view mirror-maybe Stan’s-and deflected down and into Elizabeth. I think this is the most likely occurance. If I am right it is similar to what happened to President Reagan when he was shot by Hinckley (sp?) with his bullet hitting the door frame of the Presidential Limousine and ricocheting into Reagan.

I guess it is also plausible that the bullet fired by Stan in the front that penatrated the lower left side (from our POV) of the windshield was deflected doward by the windshield and into Elizabeth.

By: Brian

05.04.2013 @ 11:06 PM

Yes, that was my thought too, that it must have ricocheted off of something…

By: Dave

05.02.2013 @ 4:30 PM

Three things:
1. I enjoy this show, and it is well done, but who do you root for? P&E live a lie and pretend to love their kids. They are pretty deplorable, and I can’t imagine the future they have relating to their kids.
2. Worst roadblock ever. They left a car- size gap and took forever to get in their cars. How did we win the Cold War when we are so clearly incompetent compared to two unstoppable Russians and their wigs.
3. Martha has to be really dumb. I mean really dumb.

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:41 AM

1. I never understand questions like this. A TV show isn’t a sporting event. You don’t have to “root” for someone. Nor do you have to pass moral judgement on them.

By: mcm99

05.03.2013 @ 2:48 AM

Besides, I mean…. saying they “pretend” to love their kids means that you are missing the point entirely.

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 7:14 AM

I disagree with the first two points but agree a little with the third:

1. They both love their kids dearly. Yes their work leaves them alone a lot (they do get baby sitters for one day missions. We saw at least one and herd them refer to another in another episode, but I do wonder what do they do when they are gone multiple days, but they love their kids. Elizabeth doesn’t show it much but she does.

I will say they should’ve got to know the other neighbors on the block better so they don’t have to keep relying on the Beemans to bail them out; although I do remember Paige lying to her mother that another neighbor got them from the mall in the episode “Trust Me” where Paige and Henry hitchhiked and got into that creep’s car (I still think he was a creep and not a KGB officer. If he was an officer he is VERY bad with kids).

2. Yes the road block could’ve been better but in real life criminals do bust them. If amateur criminals can do it then definitely professional Agents. Still the FBI could’ve put the cars nose to nose closer. Now that I think about it the scene reminds me of “The Seven Ups” where the two killers bust through the NYPD road block just before entering the George Washington Bridge.

3. If you are referring to Martha killing the Assistant CIA Director. Objectively I think so too, but it does show that Claudia despite Elizabeth’s doubts, really did love Zhukov and got her revenge, almost the same kind of revenge Elizabeth wanted came to her senses before it was too late.

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 8:28 AM

Ooops! That should’ve read:

“3. If you are referring to *Claudia* killing the Assistant CIA Director…”

By: youngjt80

05.02.2013 @ 5:38 PM

Loved it. Great tension throughout.

By: BlitzMark

05.02.2013 @ 6:47 PM

I think the finale was great. Why does it have to follow the same formula as other dramas? It was intense, had good action, and had me in suspense throughout much of it.

The question I have is how long can this show keep it up? First season of Homeland was great. The second season? Not so much. Will this show encounter the same issues and follow the same unfortunate course?

By: StanfordF

05.02.2013 @ 7:21 PM

“it’s a measure of how relatively isolated Philip and Elizabeth’s cover identities are that Philip has to call Stan….” This bothered me as well and was the only real fault in an otherwise great ep. Once they knew Stan was a fed, wouldn’t they befriend some other neighbors for just such an emergency?

By: hunter2012

05.03.2013 @ 7:30 AM

I agree they should’ve befriended other neighbors to the extent they did with Stan, although I agree why they did get close with Stan, despite the danger in particular.

However, as I said above Paige lied to her mother that another neighbor got them from the mall in the episode “Trust Me”, where they escaped form the creep so they are friends with the other neighbors off screen to the point the kids could call other neighbors to pick them up. Indeed it would be very suspicious if they weren’t social with the other neighbors; I just wish that they would show it sometimes.

That said there is a nice “hide in plain sight” aspect having Stan baby sit their kids. After all who would figure that spies with children would send them to the man who almost caught them? Not even Stan’s “spidey sense” could pick up on that. :-)

Incidentally, I think it was actually one of the agents behind them that shot Elizabeth as they back up though the road block not Stan. If you look at the scene again, just before they hit the cars there is a very bright spark below the level of the car door window slot where Elizabeth was sitting. That is when Elizabeth got hit by the entering bullet.

By: Louis Vuiton

05.02.2013 @ 7:26 PM

Excellent finale! Philip and Eliazabeth, getting back, Martha in her make believe world, looking for wall paper. And how delicious is granny, you old devil! Best new show. Cheers to FX